To Lead with Fire
by SimplyMe51
Summary: Jack's hidden his Fire all his life, but it doesn't take him long to find out he doesn't have to hide from his team - nor they from him.
1. PART I

**AN: This is a weird sort-of-but-not-really bending AU, which mostly follows canon, but includes the fact that people can have the ability to bend one of four elements: Air, Earth, Water, or Fire. The bending rules are sort-of the same as the Avatar universe, but again, not really?**

 **It's more of a character study/experiment with a weird writing style, so if it seems off, that's why. *Shrugs***

* * *

Bending is rare. Being a bender – no matter what element – puts you in the spotlight. Governments, scientists, entertainers, rich people who need bodyguards - they all try to recruit benders, and not always for good reasons. Jack has learned to keep his Fire contained within him, and though it's helped him on missions before, he's made it to where he is now without it. The Air Force doesn't know about his bending – they hadn't known when they'd recruited him, not when they'd promoted him, and not now that he's retired. Only his wife and son and a couple of good friends he's lost along the way have ever found out about it. Jack had learned from his father, and from watching the few Fire bender soldiers he'd met.

It doesn't matter – bending hadn't saved his son.

.

He joins the SGC out of a sense of duty, because he's been asked. Not for a purpose.

He has mixed emotions when they give him his orders.

Relief, because he's been contemplating suicide himself and this is so much better than that, to go out in service of his country. Shame, because he knows he shouldn't be relieved. But mostly apathy because, as always, his mind turns to Charlie.

.

The people of Abydos are kind but cowed by their alien overlord, his team is made of good men, some of whom he's worked with before, and he's stuck with a geek whose long hair is always blowing into his face and who sneezes at the drop of a pin. It could have been worse. (It could have been better, he thinks then. Later, he disagrees.)

He feels the old familiar surge of adrenaline when Ra's men attack, but it's only after Daniel's 'death' that he musters up the strength to throw a few fireballs around when no one's looking. He's out of practice, but with their guns and the help of the people of Abydos, they overthrow Ra and destroy his spaceship as it tries to flee the planet.

He leaves Daniel on the alien world and comes home thankful to a man he never thought he'd like, with a renewed sense of purpose he thought he'd lost forever. He points his telescope at the night sky and practices his breathing, watching the candles flicker before him.

.

A year later Jack returns – to active service, to the SGC, and to Abydos. He's got another team this time, some new faces, some old, and another geek beside him – though she's Air Force, and into the physical sciences rather than the social.

Daniel greets them on the other side, looking comfortable and happy and content in his Abydonian robes, wind still ruffling his too long hair. The peace doesn't last long.

The Stargate goes other places, hundreds, thousands, perhaps millions of other planets throughout the galaxy, and the mission this time isn't to explore – it's to rescue.

There are other aliens like Ra out there, with slaves beneath their feet and loyal soldiers at their backs. It doesn't matter that this one is called Apophis, or that his planet is called Chulak – he's just another Ra: power hungry and narcissistic, actually believing that he's a god who deserves to rule over these people.

Except... not all the soldiers are so loyal. Daniel's wife has already been taken, and Skaara is gone, when Jack manages to lock eyes with one of Apophis' soldiers and asks for help. Help is given.

.

General Hammond can't bend, but he's solid and reminds Jack of Earth. This is a commanding officer that Jack can trust, and count on, as the man will eventually prove, over and over again.

.

Bending exists out in the galaxy, Teal'c tells them: the false gods can command all four elements to their will. This is what convinces people of their power.

The humans under their control have been carefully corralled and managed, entire bloodlines severed to ensure that none of them have the power to challenge their god.

Bending exists out in the galaxy, but only for those who proclaim to rule it. Jack wants to shove a fireball in Apophis' smug face.

.

There's a rush to recruit in Colorado Springs, the Air Force snapping up as many elite officers and benders as it can. The rule gets laid down that there's at least one to a team, doesn't matter what element. It's partly as a show of power, partly for safety, partly to show any people out there that command of an element does not make you a god.

(Teal'c gazes around at the open displays of bending, wide eyed (or at least, wide eyed for him). Ordinary citizens aren't allowed such power where he comes from. The penalty is a swift and sudden death not only for you, but for anyone who might be related to you as well.)

Their lighting is electric, but there are torches down every hallway and in most rooms. Aside from the pipes running through the walls there are small canals running alongside half of them, lining one side of each hallway. Construction takes a while, and they have to be cautious given the classified nature of the project, but the ventilation system is far better than any underground system has the right to be.

The Earth benders are surrounded by their element, and are careful not to shake the mountain, but they get their playgrounds too.

It's the most bender friendly place on Earth and they pull in fourteen benders for their nine teams, and a further six who won't be going out in the field.

.

Jack puts his foot down and gets Daniel, Carter, and Teal'c on his team. They're the only exception (except they're really not).

.

Their missions now are half exploratory, half intelligence gathering. They go through the Stargate, sometimes meeting new people, sometimes not. Jack practices his bending at home, and plays with the Fire when it's his turn to keep watch.

Some missions are easy. Some they barely come back from. Jack's fondness for his team grows with the SGC.

.

It is hard to tell if the Nox are benders or not. They don't seem surprised by the idea, but neither do they manipulate any of the four elements in front of SG-1.

(They are peaceful and flighty and can vanish in an instant. Jack thinks perhaps they're all descended from Air, but he'd have a hard time proving that.)

.

They visit deserts and mountains and forests and plains. They visit planets with no moons where the night is always dark and planets that orbit two stars where the sun never sets. They visit moons larger than some planets and moons around gas giants and moons that are just as barren as their own. They visit worlds with days longer than their year and worlds that spin the other way.

Daniel is excited by the cultures they find, Carter by the science they discover. Teal'c adjusts easily to life on Earth and yearns to free his people.

Jack's fascinated too, but his mind is always on his team and what it will take to get them home safely.

.

(Carter always carries more than one canteen. Teal'c often removes his boots and treads barefoot when he knows their camp is safe. Daniel is light on his feet, his breathing is always steady and even.)

(No one notices these small, insignificant details.)

.

There's a rainstorm on P6X-732. It's bad. There's little wind, but the downpour is so strong that it doesn't matter. Jack is so wet that he can't keep warm. He couldn't create a flame if he tried, regardless of the rain. Daniel is concentrating so hard on each step he takes that Teal'c has stopped him from falling twice now. Even Carter, who usually enjoys the rain, looks miserable.

They're lost and can't see five feet in front of their faces. And as much as Jack wants to stop and wait it out, it looks like it's only going to get worse. They need shelter.

Daniel stumbles for the third time. Even Teal'c's calm and steady hands can't stop him from hitting the ground. The wind picks up as the archaeologist falls and the rain that had been hammering the top of Jack's head now feels like pins and needles as it angles into his face.

He curses, though it goes unheard in the downpour, and they stop as Teal'c helps Daniel up.

Jack can barely see Carter in the rain, can't see the expression on her face that would tell him what she's thinking, but he can see her raise her arms slowly, as if carrying a great weight. As her hands rise the Water slows, until there's a protective bubble around them, holding back the onslaught.

Jack can see and hear again. He stares at his teammate, surprised by what's been revealed to him.

(Daniel just looks grateful, slumping against Teal'c in relief. The Jaffa himself is as perpetually unbothered as always, though he looks mildly curious.)

There's no time for surprise.

"How long can you hold that?" he asks.

Carter looks worried, and Jack doesn't know if it's because her secret's been revealed or because of the storm, and the weight of the Water she's holding back. "Maybe an hour," she says, and she still has to speak loudly through the pounding around them.

Jack nods once. "Let's keep moving then." Shelter is still the priority. Then they'll talk.

Even with the rain no longer pouring down on them they move slow. The ground is still drenched and they either slip or stick in it, small rivers made by the storm sliding under Carter's protective shield and keeping their feet wet. It takes them almost a half hour to find a cave protected from the storm.

As Carter lets go of the Water, Jack's just glad the planet even has caves relatively near the 'gate.

A moment passes in which the only sound is the storm outside. They walk deeper into the cave, taking time to catch their breaths and come to terms with how utterly and completely soaked they are. The rain may have been unbearable, but without it the discomfort of their soaked clothing is that much more obvious. There's already a large puddle on the cave floor, just from the four of them.

Carter shifts uncomfortably, drawing attention to her. "I could, you know," she offers hesitantly, gesturing at them.

Jack hesitates in return, unsure where to go from there.

"Please," Daniel says easily, seated on a boulder and ringing out his bandanna.

(The decision is taken from him).

Teal'c nods his agreement.

Still Carter turns to Jack. He nods.

It's not that he's unhappy that Carter is keeping a secret. Or that he's torn over whether or not to keep her secret. He's not bothered that she's a Water bender and he's not bothered that she didn't tell them. (That would be hypocritical of him, after all).

He's not even all that surprised, he realizes. It makes sense, in an odd sort of way.

What has him thinking is his own secret. Carter trusted them with hers – what does it say about him that he is still reluctant to do the same?

Carter moves fluidly, pulling the Water from their clothes and out of the cave. Jack takes a deep breath, focusing on his center, and finally manages to warm himself.

"So, a Water bender in the Air Force?" he says.

Carter grins, relief on her face. "You know me sir," she replies easily. "I was never one for stereotypes."

Jack thinks back to their first meeting, when Carter had been so quick to prove herself and make her own way through the Stargate. No. She wasn't.

In the end, his decision is so easy and simple he can't even call it a decision. Of course he trusts these people – how could he ever have had any doubt?

"Well in that case," he responds, snapping his now dry fingers. Fire springs to life in his hand.

Even the small flames tickling his palm bring warmth to the cave. Carter and Teal'c take unconscious steps forward. Daniel shifts closer and leans from his spot seated on his rock.

There's a beat and Daniel lets out a long breath of relief. A breeze circles through the cave, throwing around the warm Air that Jack's giving off.

"Too bad there's nothing to burn," Daniel says.

Jack just shrugs. He cups his hands together in front of him. Lets the Fire grow.

"I did not think bending was common among your people," Teal'c states, half question. The amazement in his voice when he speaks of bending – a power reserved only for his false gods – is still present, though softer than when they had first met.

"It's not," Carter and Daniel reply simultaneously. (Carter's interested in the physics behind bending, Daniel the history).

"Then we are fortunate to have found each other." Teal'c doesn't stomp his foot, or do any of the other strong, solid gestures Jack associates with Earth bending. He merely slides his right foot outward, away from his left. Roughly hewn benches rise from the ground as he does so, one for each of them in a neat circle.

Another beat, then they move and take their seats, dropping their damp packs in front of them. Jack holds his Fire in his lap.

Teal'c has provided just enough of an opening in the circle for them to watch the cave entrance, but the group turns to Daniel. As if expecting him to have a hidden secret of his own to share as well.

Daniel smiles. Softly, playfully. He takes his careful, even breaths. A breeze circles through the cave again, once more distributing the warm Air Jack is producing.

Daniel's never been one for shows of power, Jack realizes, but he's been bending all along.

.

(This is what opened Teal'c's eyes, Jack thinks. How could a soldier have the same power as a god?)

.

Janet Fraiser isn't a Water bender (she's not a bender at all). She can't heal with a touch.

That doesn't stop her from being the best doctor at the SGC anyway.

.

Not much changes after that. At least, not at first. Not to the rest of the SGC.

There are several reasons why, they say, they should keep their secrets: they'll be stereotyped, people will stop underestimating them, they'll be assigned new duties, they'll be put on leave for keeping a secret. They're used to it.

In truth there's only one. Four benders to a team will seem like overkill to the United States Air Force.

But things do change. Now they have a common enemy, and a common secret. They can bend in the field together, as long as they find a way to word their reports without lies.

The SGC grows, and so does their friendship. They're more than a team. They trust each other with more than their lives.

.

Walter's not always on shift in the gate room, but he's Jack's favorite technician. The man reminds him of Air – easy going, agreeable, and moving with the flow, but strong when he needs to be.

.

("Why did you keep it a secret?" They'll ask each other later, huddled around a campfire that Jack has created on a world far, far from home.

Teal'c's explanation is obvious, and will need no words.

"I'm a physicist," Sam will tell them. "And I wanted to keep doing that instead of being used for my bending."

Daniel will shrug. "I never really hid it, I just. Didn't tell anyone." He will look uneasy, and his answer will hint at a childhood filled with mistrust that the team has yet to learn of.

Jack won't really know the answer. He'll suppose it's a little of Sam's reason, that he didn't want to be assigned missions based on only one of his skills, and a little bit of Daniel's, that he didn't trust anyone with the information, and maybe even a little bit of Teal'c's, because Fire benders aren't always viewed in the best light, especially Fire benders who join the armed forces.)

.

(The truth is, mostly it's because Jack likes to be underestimated.)

.

(The truth is also this: except for Teal'c, they did tell people. Later, Daniel will tell stories of learning to manipulate Air at his parents' sides. Jack will play tricks with the Fire, and think of Charlie and Sarah. Sam will recall hours spent training with her father – not a bender himself, but completely willing to work with her. It is the one thing they never argued about.)

.

Jack learns to manipulate the Fire of a staff blast. Sam practices her healing. Teal'c walks barefoot for most missions now, his hard-soled feet able to sense things far further off than his keen eyes can see.

Daniel floats along, calm and sure-footed as always. This time Jack sees the wind that supports him. Recognizes his hand in the breezes that pass by. Daniel has embraced his element more than any of them – always has. He is Air.

.

P3X-974 changes things again. Teal'c is taken, and Jack along with him. They use Earth and Fire to defeat the Unas trapped with them and learn of the Asgard, and their protected planets. Thor's Hammer could be the salvation of Goa'uld hosts and though it traps the Jaffa inside, Teal'c is of the Earth. The mountain cannot stand in his way.

They leave Cimmeria with an alliance and hope for the hosts of the Goa'uld.

.

Rya'c cannot bend, and though there is Fire in Bra'tac's soul he too is powerless to control the elements.

.

Daniel dies in a storm of Fire on P3X-866, but that can't be right. Jack would have stopped it. (Unless it never really happened at all).

.

As with the Nox, it's hard for Jack to tell if the Tollans are benders. They could be keeping it secret, unwilling to show primitive minds. They could know nothing about it at all.

The topic is never brought up.

(The United States government certainly isn't going to tell them anything.

.

It's hard to tell if Colonel Harry Maybourne is a bender at first too. He keeps his skills close to his chest, regardless of how arrogant he is. But special ops guys as high up as Maybourne is usually have an element they call their own. Jack keeps an eye out.

.

In Antarctica, Jack keeps them warm and Carter keeps them hydrated. Daniel and Teal'c bring them home.

.

Harlan's deception on P3X-989 is easily discovered when the androids wake without connections to their elements. Jack wakes to see two of his team looking down on him.

The other Daniel looks lost. Missing something so deeply a part of him.

The other Sam looks worried. She grasps for something she can no longer feel.

The other Teal'c looks ruffled. His sense of the world around him torn from him.

The other Jack looks angry.

The other team will make it through this but they're not SG-1. How could they be, without their elements?

.

Kinsey can't bend. Jack is beyond grateful for that. To give slime like that any more power would spell the end of the SGC.

.

Sam gets taken by a Tok'ra (Goa'uld, but not) on P3X-382. It dies still a part of her, and leaves an impression behind.

Daniel falls apart on P3R-636, taken in by a Goa'uld sarcophagus. The loss of control (the overwhelming need) plays havoc on the usually centered man. It takes all of them to get him through it.

Jack gets stabbed through the shoulder by an alien device they bring back to Earth. He tries not to let it show that the heat doesn't affect him as much as it should.

Teal'c's son is taken by Apophis – and that's really when it all starts.

.

The Jaffa cannot control the elements. This is fact among the Goa'uld civilizations – bending is a power only the gods have.

But Teal'c, by some fluke, can bend.

(His mother could not, and he does not know if his father could. He never got the chance to ask.)

(He is self-taught.)

He demonstrates this, done with hiding, in front of the people of Chulak. In front of his false god.

Apophis fires back, matching stone for stone. He gets away, but not with his army intact.

A Jaffa who can bend? The whispers are strong and quick, spreading out fast from Chulak. They pass through all of Apophis' lands. They don't stop there.

The rumors reach the people of Heru'ur, of Ba'al. Of Sokar and Yu, Cronus and Nirrti, Amaterasu and Bastet. Not all of the rumors are true, and not all of the rumors are believed, but they exist. A Jaffa who defied his god. A Jaffa with the power of a god.

Teal'c becomes a legend, one that will live on long after he is gone. (They all become legends, eventually, but that has not happened yet).

(Rya'c returns to his father, whole and unharmed.)

.

Rebellion grows.

.

Apophis is stubborn and unyielding. Difficult to move, impossible to sway. He stands his ground, and buries anyone who defies him beneath an avalanche of Earth.

.

A year has passed. (One Abydonian year). A year filled with so many people and planets. With truths revealed and secrets kept. A year of traveling together, of exploring and discovering and fighting and (sometimes) dying, side by side.

Daniel has a promise to keep. Teal'c goes with him.

.

Jack isn't there to see it, but he gets the full story later on. (He's in Washington dealing with politics and awards and honors he knows he deserves but doesn't know if he actually wants. Not without the rest of his team there with him.).

Daniel and Teal'c return to Abydos to find Sha're, pregnant with the child of Apophis. They think of Cimmeria, and Thor's Hammer. They leave Abydos as quickly as they can. Daniel holds onto his wife.

Three of them are swept up by Thor's Hammer.

Four of them return to Earth: Teal'c, Daniel, Sha're, and her son, Shifu.

.

Siler's not a Fire bender, but he's been electrocuted enough times and lived that Jack thinks there must be some kind of spark inside him. He's dependable and reliable and he keeps the mountain's flame burning.

.

Sha're cannot return to Abydos (not while Apophis is still alive) but her people are safe. She was taken by a rival Goa'uld, they will say when Apophis comes. He will rage and anger, the ground shaking beneath his feet, but take his frustrations out on the System Lords. Abydos is safe.

Daniel takes a month off to help her adjust to life on Earth, but his apartment is no place for mother and son. The three of them move into a large, empty house.

(The rest of SG-1 is practically on leave as well. They visit often. The house is not so empty.)

But Sha're's brother is still out there, and Daniel has found a family with the team. He's tells Jack he's going to stay before he tells General Hammond.

.

Life moves on, but differently. Daniel has a wife now, and a son that isn't his but might as well be.

(Teal'c has a son too, and he visibly softens around Shifu).

Their missions aren't any shorter, or less important, but if they get an extra day on Earth here or there nobody says anything.

.

(It's too early to tell if Shifu can bend. If there are any effects of being a harcesis.

Daniel has already begun his research.)

.

Carter dreams of a planet they've never been to. There, they find the Tok'ra. Word has spread of them across the galaxy. Of SG-1 and the Jaffa Earth bender Teal'c.

The Tok'ra are, if not exactly excited to meet them, curious. Jack doesn't trust them, and doesn't like them. They're all Goa'uld to him, if a bit less murderous.

But the Tok'ra are eager for an alliance. They only take willing hosts – and willing hosts are rare. (Let alone willing hosts who can bend.)

With this news comes a revelation – the Goa'uld cannot bend all four elements. They merely take hosts extremely talented in one element, and use their technology to fake the rest. Subterfuge and lies. It is how they rule.

(Apophis prefers Earth bending, Teal'c tells them later. He rarely used the other elements.)

(Sam asks about the hand device, if it's how Apophis appears to Air bend. Teal'c thinks about it, nods once, and gives a solemn "Indeed.")

.

Jacob cannot bend. The Tok'ra are happy to have him anyway.

.

On P3R-272 Jack gets all the knowledge of the gate builders downloaded into his brain. He meets the Asgard, for real this time. He thanks them for Cimmeria and tells them about Thor's Hammer.

The Asgard cannot bend, but they know what it means to be able to do so. They recognize his power. (They have stories of upwards waterfalls, and rivers bending to their will, but that is in their past.)

.

Daniel's run in with Machello scares Sha're. (It scares all of them, really. Such is the life of a 'gate team.)

They love each other, but their experiences apart have changed them. Sha're has nightmares often that even Daniel can't chase away. Daniel has his own fair share of them as well.

(Jack knows this partly because he sometimes lies awake at night, unable to sleep himself. Because it's the same thing all of them who go through the 'gate experience. The other part is because Daniel tells him. They're a team.)

Daniel stays with SG-1. Sha're stays on Earth. As far as Jack knows, they're happy with the agreement.

.

Apophis crashes practically on their doorstep, dying. They have to return him to Sokar before they get much information.

(He sneers and rages at Teal'c, tries to get the mountain to do his bidding. But Teal'c is powerful too, and he's not the only Earth bender at the SGC. The mountain does not bend to the false god's will.)

.

(Inside Apophis' ranks rebellion grows and grows. How can he be a god? His previous First Prime now stands against him, a bender. His wife and child were taken from him by mere humans. Freed. How can he be all powerful?)

(Now he is a prisoner of Sokar. If such a powerful System Lord could fall, what about the rest?)

.

Major Paul Davis, liaison between the SGC and the Pentagon, is a Water bender. (Jack only knows this because he reads his file. The man is a desk worker now.)

Still, though he seemed skeptical at first, he too grows to accept the SGC and their ways. Once he's carved his way, he flows through Cheyenne Mountain easily, with the calm surety of Water, lending support where he can.

.

Hathor dies. Seth falls next. Their Fire and Earth cannot stand up to the full force of all four elements against them.

(In the process of his rescue, Teal'c's Earth bending is revealed to the SGC. He is treated with hostility and suspicion for a while by those who don't know any better. For those who do, nothing has changed. Trust is slow, but it comes.)

(The pressure to add a bender to SG-1 fades.)

.

The Goa'uld are scared and desperate, though they try not to show it. Their armies are turning against them. Their fellow rulers are falling one by one. Ra, Apophis. Hathor, Seth.

With the help of the Asgard, they work to negotiate a treaty with Earth.

It doesn't go off without a hitch, but the treaty gets signed.

(Cronus sneers at and goads Teal'c. Nirrti's sly eyes search for benders.

She leaves in chains. He leaves in bandages.)

.

Daniel is infected with a strange Goa'uld killing device. He sees things that aren't there. His stress skyrockets. Sha're panics.

The SGC think him crazy.

Jack and Sam and Teal'c know differently. Daniel's mind is still strong. (He doesn't try to bend once.)

(They talk to Sha're – she still worries, but when she hears about Daniel's bending she calms. She was, after all, the first person he ever told.)

.

Jack teaches the Orbanians about childhood. About play. They meet a Carter who can't bend. Teal'c (almost) dies. (The Earth keeps him safe).

.

Through the Stargate and back again. Through the Stargate and back again. This is their life now. They meet people on moons and visit barren planets. They encounter strange technologies and natural wonders. Science and sunsets. Black holes and ray guns. Tunnels grown underground and spaceships that fly overhead. Weather manipulators and viruses. Gods and demons.

This is their life now.

Teal'c has a family hidden away on their own planet. Daniel has a family hidden away on a planet that is not their own. They all have a family in each other.

.

(Shifu begins to have trouble sleeping. It seems the harcesis child has nightmares of his own.)

.

The Tok'ra give them the news about Jacob and Selmak. Trapped on a fiery hell that no one but Jolinar has ever escaped from. Jack has to hold back a grin when they tell him that he's going down to the surface with Daniel, Sam, and Martouf.

If no one's ever escaped before, they must not have sent any Fire benders.

.

They land into a world of Fire and sweat. Jack can feel the heat before his escape pod even opens. He coughs once as he stands, tasting the foul Air. Then the wind blows gently past his face, bringing clean Air from somewhere.

Martouf raises his head and takes a deep breath. "We are lucky," he says. "The conditions here are not supposed to be so favorable."

Jack smirks at Daniel. Sam hides a grin.

They move through the dry heat of the tunnels. A breeze follows them – not cool, but clean. Jack can feel the Fire around him. The heat of the moon only energizes him.

Sam's memories of Jolinar trickle in, leading them on their way. They pass a river of lava. Signs of habitation.

In the central cavern, their fellow prisoners surround them.

Jack looks around at the hostile faces. Speaks up. "Howdy folks. We're uh, new in these parts. I know that's hard to tell, but it's true." He pauses. Glances over at his teammate. "Carter? Carter?"

She's experiencing another memory.

"Bynarr!" she calls out, searching the crowd.

Na'onak, First Prime to Bynarr, Lord of Netu appears before them. Commands them to kneel.

Jack doesn't even have to call the Fire into being, just summon it to his hand. He spins and the Fire spins with him, ringing around them in a circle. Pushing back the hostile citizens of the fiery moon.

Martouf stares at him in astonishment. The men back off.

"She said we're here to speak with Bynarr." Daniel projects his voice over the crowd calmly. As though they aren't in a place described as Hell. As if Jack, surrounded by Fire as he is, couldn't bring everyone down so, so easily.

Murmurs break out. Na'onak no longer looks so confident. Jack spots a man running off into a tunnel, no doubt to fetch the ruler of this forsaken place.

Bynarr's appearance suits the world he rules. An oozing scar has replaced his left eye. Jack's seen bad wounds before, but this one is worse. (Otherwise the Goa'uld would have healed it.)

"You think to manipulate my element!" the man rages. "On my world!" He brings a ball of Fire into existence in his hand. Throws it at the ground before their feet.

(His flame is a sickly yellow color. It dissipates weakly, with little heat.)

Jack grins. He gestures outward and all the flames around him flare up. "You mean my element?" he calls back.

The muttering increases. Bynarr growls, angry. This time the flame is directed at Jack's head. It doesn't take much to deflect it.

The firefight is short, and easy. Jack handles Bynarr on his own. When he's done, most of the prisoners have left the cavern. Only Bynarr and his First Prime remain, and Bynarr is on the ground.

"Here's the deal," Jack says. He holds his bright red-orange flame in his right hand. Tosses the ball of Fire upward and catches it again. "You tell us how Jolinar escaped, and we let you live."

Bynarr is arrogant, prideful, egotistical, and every other synonym Jack can think of – just like every other Goa'uld. Just like every other Goa'uld, he's also a coward when it comes right down to it.

They find Jacob and escape, inciting a rebellion on Netu in the process. When they leave, it is to the sight of Sokar's palace burning behind them.

(Jacob and Martouf are astonished by Jack's bending, but they keep his secret from the SGC.)

.

(Another one falls).

.

They find Skaara on Tollana and argue for his freedom. He comes back with them to greet his sister and meet his nephew. He is torn between them and his people. Between the strange world of Earth and the home he has longed for all these years.

(Skaara is not a kid anymore. How could he be?)

He chooses Abydos. (He wants Sha're to come with him.)

(She doesn't.)

.

Skaara cannot bend. Despite his desert planet, Jack thinks the young man is best suited to Water. He has no reason behind this thought.

.

Jack gets trapped on a world for one hundred days. (Cut off from his internal Fire too, for he cannot scare these villagers). Teal'c unburies the 'gate with one swift movement.

He deceives his team (tries to) and helps bring down a rouge SG team. (They're hurt by his actions and his words, but they know him too well. They know his secret – why would he give that up?)

.

Sha're and Daniel continue to worry about Shifu. When Bra'tac comes with word of an interplanetary war that Apophis is involved in they decide to act. They go to Kheb, a place from Sha're's memories and Bra'tac's history.

There they find an ascended being with true mastery over all four elements. She knows how to save Shifu, but Sha're will not be separated from her child. Daniel loses her again. This time, he knows it is not forever.

(Daniel almost goes with them. Jack tries not to think about it too much.)

.

While Daniel is in the hospital with appendicitis, Jack and Sam and Teal'c meet the Replicators. Jack's Fire does little to break them apart. Sam cuts them in half with her Water, tries to freeze them in place, but they always get free and reform. Teal'c stands his ground, concentrates, and bends the very metal they are made of. They do not get back up.

They save Thor and Earth by burning up the Asgard's ship in the atmosphere and escape to P3X-234.

Their troubles with the replicators are only just beginning.

.

The Eurondans cannot bend, which is a relief. The tension that forms between Daniel and the team, however, is not.

.

Jack and Sam are forced to admit the existence of their growing feelings for each other. Jack and Teal'c get stuck in a time loop (Jack displays his bending to the SGC more than once). They discover the Russians have been using the second Stargate, and that even Sam has difficulty bending Water that is essentially alive.

Daniel befriends his captor on P3X-888 and gets set free.

They lose their memories for a time on a planet experiencing an ice age, but there's still something that draws them together.

When Teal'c gets tortured by Heru'ur the enemy Jaffa around him are surprisingly silent. Respectful. This is a Jaffa with the power of the gods.

Floating in space, with no ground beneath him, Teal'c musters his strength and breaks his chains by bending the very metal they are made of. The other Jaffa are in awe. They help him escape.

.

(Through the Stargate and back again.)

.

Despite all their efforts eliminating System Lords, a new Goa'uld rises from Earth. Inhabiting the body of Daniel's old friend, Osiris lives again.

.

(The only solace, the only relief that can be gained from Sarah Gardner's abduction, is that she is not a bender. She has no element to call her own, no Air or Fire, Water or Earth to give strength to the Goa'uld that now resides within her.

Maybe, maybe, Osiris will choose another host.)

.

(If she doesn't kill Sarah first.)

.

General Hammond is almost blackmailed into resigning; a message arrives from the future. Sha're and Shifu pay them a visit, then leave again.

.

Cronus falls, and their android counterparts fall with him.

.

(Through the Stargate and back again.)

.

Apophis dies in a fiery explosion, alone on his ship as it burns, surrounded by Replicators.

(He tries to take Teal'c with him, but it has been a long time since the Jaffa has been his.)

* * *

 **AN: Please let me know what you think! I know the writing style is weird, but that was sort of the point for this fic.**


	2. PART II

In the end, Apophis' death changes little in the grand scheme of things. There are other Goa'uld who claim parts of his territory. Other System Lords who break apart his armies for themselves.

Once they get Teal'c back, life moves on at the SGC.

(There's a shift in the atmosphere though. Among the Tau'ri soldiers. Among the free Jaffa. Apophis was the first to invade Earth. Teal'c was the first to rebel.

The tide is changing.)

.

Carter befriends an ascended being, Jack fights side by side with a shape-shifting alien. They almost destroy all life on an Asgard-guarded planet called K'Tau, but things get set right in the end.

Through the Stargate and back again. Life moves on.

By now the SGC has grown considerably. What started with nine small off-world teams has become so much more.

Half of Carter's family is somewhere else in the galaxy now, fighting with the Tok'ra. Teal'c's family is sequestered away, kept safe, but distant. Daniel's family has ascended into glowing beings of light (he says he still sees them in his dreams).

Jack had joined the SGC still reeling from the loss of his family. (A mood Daniel had pulled him from.) He's found a new one here.

.

Benders abound at the SGC. An Air bending USAF Major on SG-5. An Earth bending archaeologist on SG-12. A Water bending nurse in the infirmary. A Fire bending scientist in the labs.

They still do not know about Jack. About Daniel or Carter.

But Teal'c bends freely.

.

They battle [what happened to Cassandra. Virus?] and slavery, fight an alien creature with Russian soldiers, and meet the Goa'uld again on the new Tollan home world.

They meet the Aschen (a deceptive race), an Earthly billionaire who cares little for any human rights but his own, and an old alien friend who's somehow become a TV producer.

Jack fights a hostile takeover with new recruits at his side, and holds in his Fire as always. Teal'c gets stuck in the Stargate, but Carter gets him back.

.

Daniel goes alone to a meeting of the System Lords. The rest of them meet with the Tok'ra. (Under attack, Jack dare not waste oxygen in the tunnels by using his Fire. Teal'c doesn't hesitate to shift the Earth from their path.)

They lose some of the free Jaffa to the return of Anubis, but Teal'c is no longer the only Jaffa who can bend. (No longer the only Jaffa forced to keep himself hidden.)

The Goa'uld are all weakening: even this ancient and malevolent being.

.

Lord Yu is an Air bender, sharp swift jabs mixed with gentle breezes that conceal storms. He suffocates his enemies, robs them of one thing they cannot live without, and is unmoved as they suffer before him. Flexible in a way the other Goa'uld aren't, he moves around obstacles and carves his own path. Patient in a way the other Goa'uld aren't, he's willing to wait.

(There are rumors that he cannot be fooled. Daniel says he likely feels the Air shift around him, the movements of his allies and enemies through the world, and no surprise attack will ever succeed.)

.

An asteroid hurtles toward Earth, Imhotep tries to regain control of his Jaffa. They find a child-like android responsible for the replicators on a barren planet and Daniel almost Air bends Jack into a wall when he destroys her. (Almost).

Growing tensions simmer beneath the surface of SG-1.

(Jack wonders how things have gone so wrong. But there has always been tension between his ideals and Daniel's. Their friendship has always just overcome it.)

(Almost always. The Eurondans are not forgotten.)

.

But then it happens. The unthinkable. They've died before. They've lost Daniel before (thought they'd lost him). This is different.

This is slow and painful. This is lies and cowardice. This is Daniel, refusing to tell them what happened because he's dying either way - who cares if the Kelownans want to save face.

.

Jack cares.

.

The Kelownan capital city is much like an Earth city would have looked like fifty or sixty years ago. Or so Jack imagines. They have politics and science, benders mixed amongst them. A mounting cold war looms over them all.

They'd been eager to learn about the Stargate. Eager to learn about alien life. Eager to exchange knowledge in general.

Daniel in particular had gotten along well with a fellow nerd - Jonas Quinn.

Of course there's a catch. (There's always a catch.)

Cold wars are apparently synonymous with mutually assured destruction. The planet as a whole isn't quite there yet, but the Kelownans sure are aiming for it.

They're making a bomb.

.

And that's when it all goes wrong.

.

They return to the SGC with a dying teammate, and the claim that Daniel tried to sabotage the Kelownans' research.

They're wrong, of course.

.

(Jack's never worked harder to hold in his Fire.)

.

(The Tok'ra, the Asgard, a Goa'uld sarcophagus - Jack would take anything at this point.

Even the best Water benders in the world can't heal this much radiation damage.

They simply can't work fast enough.)

.

And then Carter talks about the potential of the naquadria. And Hammond talks about negotiating with the Kelownans.

And Jack has to clench his fist in order not to burn something down.

.

He delivers the letter himself to take the opportunity to talk to Jonas Quinn.

Maybe he convinced the man to tell the truth. Maybe he didn't.

.

(He did.)

.

Jonas comes to Earth with naquadria and an apology. And the truth. Daniel Jackson saved millions of lives.

Jack thinks of all he knows about his best friend. Of all they'd been through together. He is not surprised. (He still wants Kelowna to burn.)

.

Jacob comes, but it's not in time.

.

In the end, Jack lets Daniel go.

He's not dead - not really.

But it feels like he is.

(The torch burning in Daniel's room goes out at the moment he leaves their sight. Carter and Teal'c and Jacob throw subtle glances in Jack's direction. Hammond and Fraiser frown, but pass it off as just the breeze from Daniel's ascension.)

.

In the immediate aftermath of Daniel's passing, Jack's flame simmers down to dull embers.

Later, it roars upward into a raging bonfire, and lashes out at those who irk him.

.

Despite Daniel's passing, Jack requests to remain on active duty. He can't sit around. Can't allow himself too much time to think about his friend's absence.

The remaining members of SG-1 get called to help the Asgard before Hammond can think too much about denying his request. Jack'll take it.

.

They get through the mission, they rescue Thor, and Jack gets to pretend that Daniel was just busy elsewhere.

It's happened before plenty of times - Daniel, off to offer his expertise to another SG team without them.

Besides, it's not like Daniel's actually dead. He really is just... off somewhere else.

Right?

.

But then they get a new member added to SG-1. And another, and another, and another.

(None of them last long.)

Their sixth addition is a USAF Captain, with a degree in ancient languages and the knowledge of many modern ones. He speaks Goa'uld, has been with the SGC for three years. He knows what he's doing.

He's also incredibly arrogant.

That in itself isn't unusual. There are big shoes to fill - those before him had either been overconfident they could step in for Daniel, or too unsure of themselves to do their jobs properly.

But this Captain is different. He doesn't just think he can fill Daniel's shoes - he thinks he can do better.

Jack's in a rage after their first mission together. (Three days together, scouting out an uninhabited planet. He's glad to be back on Earth.)

But he holds it in, he calms himself, and he and Carter and Teal'c find each other afterward, migrating to Teal'c's quarters without discussing it beforehand.

They promised Hammond they'd really give the Captain a try, especially after the last guy had only lasted two hours.

They spend some time riffing their new teammate, wondering when Hammond will give up. Wondering how long the Captain will last.

.

That's when he walks in.

Like he's part of the team. Like there's nothing wrong with meeting them in Teal'c's quarters.

(He doesn't seem to realize how unwelcome he is.)

.

Later, Jack doesn't quite remember what had happened.

The team had stiffened when the Captain had joined them. He remembers that much. (Trying to give him a chance, no one had said anything.)

But then there had been the subtle insults toward Daniel. The insinuation that the Captain was so much better than him. That it was his right, to join SG-1. He's not quite sure what was said.

All Jack remembers is that it ended badly.

The candles in Teal'c's room had flared. Before Jack had realized what was happening, he been in the Captain's face, a fist full of flames in hand.

.

There's no more hiding his Fire bending from the SGC after that.

.

Jack doesn't really care.

.

They put him on leave for a short while. Try to figure out what to do with him. How to discipline him.

This isn't like Teal'c hiding his bending. Jack's been with the Air Force for a long time.

.

In the end they feel that the good he's done outweighs the secret he's kept. (Jack's sure that's mostly Hammond's doing.)

In the end, Carter reveals her bending as well, and argues that they're only more valuable now, as benders.

In the end, they both get to stay.

(In the end, all three of them wish that Daniel was with them, showing the world how Air obeyed his commands.)

.

They go through three more people before they finally find someone they can live with on SG-1.

.

Jonas Quinn is a Fire bender. A warm, eager little flame always stretching out for more knowledge to consume. He's spent more time on science then bending though, and he's not exactly skilled at it.

(His gentle flame is nothing like Daniel's calm breezes. It isn't.)

.

Now SG-1 is a team of four benders: two Fire, one Water, one Earth. They get looks from the other teams. Scorn. Jealousy. Disbelief.

They're out of favors, and they know it.

But, also, most of the SGC knows them. Knows what they've done for Earth.

Reynolds, the Earth bending leader of SG-3, reveals to Jack that he's known for a while. (Jack had thought the man might have seen something.)

Carter gets assigned a proper Water pouch.

.

Life is different, but it does move on.

.

Through the Stargate and back again. (Wishing Daniel was still by their side.)

.

A fight to save Earth, a ship at the bottom of the ocean, a frozen ancient in Antarctica who dies to save them, a town infested with infant Goa'uld.

Jack doesn't want to admit that he's starting to like Jonas. Doesn't want to ever think that someone could take Daniel's place.

But the thing about Jonas is he doesn't /try/ to take Daniel's place - he just fits into it. Jonas is aware of what Daniel did for his people. He knows exactly who's shoes he's stepped into.

And it's that respect for Daniel, coupled with his enthusiasm for Stargate travel and new experiences, that makes Jack reluctantly admit, if only to himself, that he likes the guy.

.

Jack doesn't show his Fire bending to Jonas, but he sees the man training with others in the mountain.

He approves.

.

Jack's distrust of the Tok'ra grows when, under the influence of an alien virus, he agrees to blend with one of them to save his own life (how will Carter and Teal'c handle it, if he leaves them too?).

Kanan takes hours, days of his life from him. Jack comes back to himself on an alien planet, unsure why he's there, as the Tok'ra leaves him behind.

Frankly, as he's captured by Jaffa, Jack doesn't care if the symbiote survives.

.

The Goa'uld who has him is Ba'al - Jack's never heard of him. Daniel may have mentioned the name once or twice, but Jack doesn't know which element he can bend and which he fakes at having control of.

He finds out soon enough.

(Unlike other Goa'uld, as Jack eventually learns, Ba'al favors words and knowledge over shows of power. He snarks and sneers and convinces you that you need him, convinces you to help him, convinces you that your goals are the same as his, and before you can turn on him at the end, he's gone.)

He is not solid like the Earth, free-flowing like the Air, or capricious like Fire. He is the steady drip and the smooth flow of erosion, the slow leak that creates a flood. He is the twists and turns of a river, sly and unpredictable, fast and then slow, bending out of sight so that you have no idea what is coming next.

But while Water may be his element, Ba'al is a Bloodbender through and through.

Jack stands there, defiant, until his limbs begin to move of their own accord. Soon he is up against the wall, brought there because of the Water in his body, held there by gravity.

He gets a knife in his shoulder for his _impudence_. Then another. A third one comes, and Jack knows no more.

.

(Ba'al punishes traitors like this:

They stand before him, trembling and afraid. Or perhaps straight-backed and defiant. It doesn't matter. They stand before him, and he makes them kneel. He makes them talk.

Then he pulls. He twists and turns and squeezes.

However it starts, it always ends like this: Ba'al, standing, a gleaming Watery orb undulating in the space above him. The traitor or slave, rebel or rival, nothing but a corpse on the ground, dried out and hollow.

When the slaves come later, they bring a broom and dustpan, for the being that once was crumples to dust at a touch.

No sarcophagus can bring one back from such a fate.)

.

Seated in Jack's cell, casual as can be, is Daniel. Jack looks at him, answers him cautiously, then throws his shoe through the man.

"I just tossed my shoe through you," he says plainly.

"Yes you did. That's because I've ascended to another plane of existence."

"Ohhh."

They talk. Jack takes his shoe back. Daniel claims he's not allowed to interfere.

Then he drops the bomb: "Nobody knows you're here."

So there's no rescue coming, no hope of surviving.

But Daniel just looks at him. As calm as always. "The Goa'uld and the Tok'ra may not know about your bending Jack, but the SGC does now." There is no judgement in his voice. Only acceptance. "You always knew one day you'd have to give up the advantage."

He's right of course, which makes it all the more annoying. Especially because Jack's not sure he's even really there. (And how does Daniel even know about that anyway?)

.

Jack fireblasts his way out of the cell. Then through the guards. His training with Teal'c comes in handy when he deflects staff blasts without thought.

Despite what Daniel said about not being able to help, Jack sees him out of the corner of his eye every now and again. He follows him.

Whether or not Daniel was actually there doesn't matter in the end. Jack finds his way from the fortress, and takes the slave woman with him.

He gets back to the SGC, exhausted and in pain, and tells no one what he'd seen.

Not even when Daniel reappears at his bedside.

.

He's not sure if it was real anyway.

.

(Life moves on, but this time Jack carries hope with him.)

.

A trip to Kelowna brings back old memories, a staged capture turns into a mess when two scientists try to help out SG-1.

When Tok'ra and Jaffa go head to head at the Alpha Site, for the first time, Jack is grateful the world knows of his Fire. Only a few of the Jaffa can bend, but the Tok'ra always try to take benders as hosts. Skilled warriors though the Jaffa are, they're used to fighting other Jaffa, or conquering human slaves - not benders.

Jack stands between the two opposing groups and lets the Fire pour from him. He burns, bright and brilliant and full of pent up rage and anger and pain. All he's lost, all they've fought for, and these idiots can't bother to put aside their differences to fight together? The ground scorches beneath him.

Daniel was right. (He usually is). Everybody knows of Jack's bending, there's no point in hiding what he's capable of.

(And the shocked stares, the respectful glances, the return of a temporary peace, these things are all worth it, in the end.)

.

On Pangar, they meet the Tok'ra queen, then watch her die.

On Earth, the Prometheus gets hijacked and Jack and Teal'c have to rescue Sam and Jonas from rouge NID agents.

Lost in deep space, the new SG-1 is rescued by the Asgard and recruited to stop the Replicators, trapping them within a time dilation field.

.

Through the Stargate and back again. Life finds a way. Time moves forward.

.

Kinsey reappears briefly to mess up Jack's life. Maybourne comes back with his own plan, but his offer (if true) is too good to pass up. (It's not true, after all, but he reveals his Air bending in the process.)

They run into Nirrti again, still trying to make the perfect host.

.

It's all been done before, even if it's different this time.

.

Jack's known his fair share of Air benders in his time. At least, more than most people. It comes with being a member of the Air Force. They come in all types and personalities, even if they tend to be a bit more... centered than most people. More likely to defend then attack.

Somehow, Daniel has rewritten his perception of Air benders. Changed how he thinks of them in his mind. Which is why it's such a shock when Jack sees Maybourne command the wind.

Knowing that Maybourne can bend the Air to his will does not make Jack like him any more. In fact, he thinks it makes him like the man even less. Maybourne's bending is not anything like Daniel's.

Maybourne is sharp, brief gusts of wind in your face and shortness of breath. Daniel is a calm, gentle breeze and deep, steady breathing. Maybourne's wind trips you as you walk, Daniel's guides you home.

.

After almost seven years, after war and heartbreak and loss, after hunger and pain, after friendship and loyalty, after alliances forged and broken, after saving planets and people, the rest of the world finds out about the Stargate program.

(Of course, it's not really the rest of the world. It's still a secret. Still hidden from the people of Earth.

Of course, it's only US allies that learn of it.

Of course, nothing really changes in regards to how the program is run.)

.

It's still a start.

(Maybe some things do change.)

.

Jack is patriotic. He cares about his country, he's fought and bled for America.

It's been a long time since the war with the Goa'uld has been about American values - at least for those fighting it. Jack thinks about the planet these days, and _all_ the people on it.

He thinks this disclosure is a good thing, even if he hates the bureaucracy and the arguments and the debates that go along with it. (He thinks Daniel would be (is?) pleased.)

.

They get lied to by aliens and befriend a new race. Teal'c uses his considerable (mental) strength to save both his life and his mentor's. Prometheus gets into trouble again. Jonas falls ill, but still manages to help.

.

Daniel Jackson appears in front of Jack, and asks for his help.

.

Ascended beings can either control all four elements, or they do away with bending altogether and simply alter the universe to suit their needs. Jack's never been sure which is true, mostly because they generally aren't allowed to do either.

In the end, neither he nor Daniel know what happened when the ascended being faced off with the ancient Goa'uld – only that both Daniel and Anubis survive.

.

They find Daniel on a planet once populated by Ancients. Except he's not _quite_ Daniel, because he doesn't even remember who he is.

The discovery is a confusing mixture of sheer relief and despair. Of overwhelming joy and unbridled fear that they've lost Daniel for good. Jack doesn't allow himself to doubt.

He can still see Daniel in the man before him.

.

For a short while Jack worries that Daniel will bend in front of the SGC. There's no need for that, really. Daniel is even more reserved and withdrawn than before.

.

(Of course, this means that for a brief moment Jack wonders if Daniel even can still bend. But when he and Sam and Teal'c corner Daniel, displaying their own bending, his fears evaporate.

And knowing that he has told only them about his bending, Daniel's trust in them grows.)

.

Life staggers forward in inches and centimeters, crawling and dragging itself onward, pulling itself toward something better.

But life does move on.

.

Jonas and Daniel seem to get along, but Jack can tell that Jonas also notices the way Daniel fits seemlessly back into SG-1. He doesn't stay long.

Especially not after his own planet comes under attack from Anubis.

.

(By the time he leaves the SGC, a year after he came, Jonas Quinn's flames are strong and fierce, however well contained they are. He is a bonfire that his people will gather around, a steady light to guide the way, and when Jack wishes him luck, he means it sincerely.)

.

The missions continue, the galaxy unbothered by their own trials and tribulations.

.

Jack wakes on an Asgard ship, face to face with a young clone of himself. Apparently clone-Jack used his Fire as proof of his identity, but it doesn't change the fact that he's about sixteen. Jack feels slightly wary about ditching the younger version of himself, but relief that he's not hanging around.

.

Together the team shudders and side-steps, and learns to navigate again with Daniel at their side.

But it's not seamless - for reasons other than the fact that the four of them are back together. Daniel struggles with his missing memories, regaining a few of them back. Teal'c struggles with his dependence on Tretonin, and what it means about his strength.

On their next routine patrol mission to an uninhabited planet, Jack pauses, looks around at his silent teammates, and lobs a fireball at Teal'c's head. Well. Near Teal'c's head.

They're in an open field, and there's no evidence of life on the planet so far - not even any ruins for Daniel to fawn over.

Teal'c freezes, momentarily alert and on guard, before his eyes meet Jack's.

There is a moment of silence between the four of them.

Then Teal'c stomps his foot, a chunk of Earth flying upward from the ground. With a thrust of his arm, the stone and dirt heads straight for Jack.

Before Jack can even react Daniel is moving. He steps forward, making his own motions that blast the stone away from Jack, then sweeps his arm forward in a motion that sends a blast of Air at Teal'c.

The Jaffa falls, feet knocked out from under him, but Daniel isn't done. Without even looking he pushes a hand toward Jack, knocking him down as well. Sam is the only one who escapes the Air - drawing the Water from her pouch and aiming it at Daniel.

Jack gets back to his feet in the midst of a battle between Water and Air, and exchanges glances with Teal'c. Both of them are grinning. They are all familiar with this game.

.

It's almost an hour later when they finally collapse to the ground. The Air stills, the Earth settles, the Fire dissipates, and the Water retreats. Jack is bruised and exhausted, his Fire dimmed by extended use, but SG-1 is back.

They haven't lost anything, not really. Haven't forgotten anything about the others. It's only Daniel who was gone, but it feels like all four of them are just now returning.

They'd needed this: time with just the four of them, like their old training sessions when no one else had known about their bending.

Laying on the Earth together, Jack, Sam, and Teal'c fill Daniel in on everything he'd missed.

.

Life leads them onward, and SG-1 follows gladly.

.

A town in a bubble, cut off from the toxic wasteland their ancestors created and slowly being killed by it. A ship of frozen survivors, consciousnesses transferred in and out. Another encounter with the Unas, assisted by Daniel's friendship with them. A space race with allies.

The wonders and horrors of the galaxy are vast and unimaginable, and they meet them head on.

Jack leads and Teal'c protects and Daniel calms and Sam navigates. Jack protects and Teal'c calms and Sam leads and Daniel navigates. They flow seamlessly around each other, falling back into their old roles, which aren't really roles at all.

They lead and explore, navigate and voyage. They protect and defend, attack and restrain. They search and rescue and discover and translate. They fly and swim, soar through the stars and retreat underground. They form alliances and meet new people and save the planet, all in a day's work.

They are the SGC's frontline team, and they have earned that role, and continue to earn it with every step off-world they take.

.

Evan Lorne is an Air bender, flexible and fluid. A constant cooling wind, peaceful and calm in the worst situations, capable of throwing tornadoes if the situation calls for it.

Despite their rocky start, Jack knows Daniel grows to like the other man.

.

Sam works on a virus for the 'gate system while Daniel relocates a village rocked by a natural disaster and Jack and Teal'c attempt to calm angry Jaffa.

They separate and merge again, going where they SGC sends them, but always a team.

.

Anubis is a half-ascended Goa'uld. He has no host, no physical form. The Ancients prohibit him from using his ascended abilities. The elements do not bow to him, and it is his only disadvantage.

The Kull warriors he engineers more than make up for that. The masks they wear prevent Air or Water from suffocating them. Their armor prevents Earth or Fire from obliterating them. Throw them backward and they get back up. Bury them and they dig their way out. Put a forest fire in their path and they walk through it. Push them under the surface of an ocean, infinite and deep, and they swim.

Their only weakness is time. (At least for now - Jack believes in Sam and the SGC. They'll come up with something.)

.

But as Sam and Teal'c deal with their new enemy, Jack deals with regular people, on Earth. Trekking through the jungle somewhere in Central America to save Daniel doesn't feel that different than their typical missions. And Daniel manages to mostly save himself anyway, though his Air doesn't do much against a foe that won't stay dead.

.

Bill Lee is a scientist who's been with the SGC for a while now. Jack doesn't deal with him very often, but he's dealt with him enough to know the other man isn't a bender. Still, something about him suggests Earth: he's not afraid to dig his hands in and get dirty when it comes to science, and though he's no soldier, he's solid and reliable.

Always there providing support, but never really noticed until he falters and the ground slips beneath you.

.

Through the Stargate and back again.

.

Sam manages to save the crew of _Prometheus_ , Jonas asks for help for Kelowna. Osiris returns to Earth, still possessing Sarah Gardner, but with the help of the Tok'ra they manage to free her. The Alpha Site comes under attack, and a documentary crew comes to the SGC.

.

Life moves onward.

.

(But life at the SGC isn't all victories and triumphs. Life at the SGC is bloody battles and dangerous territory. It's ambushes and traps, superstitious villagers and Jaffa faithful to their false gods.

Life at the SGC includes capture and imprisonment, torture and pain. Destruction of towns and planets, firefights between bullets and energy blasts, space battles against ha'taks and Replicators.

Sometimes, life at the SGC is death. Watching your friends, the people you've grown close to, fall. Knowing that they'll never get back up again, and learning to live with that, as life drags you forward.)

.

Janet dies saving lives on P3X-666. The staff blast is sudden and quick, and death is immediate. Jack isn't there to see her fall, but he sees the repercussions of her actions.

There isn't a person on the base who doesn't owe her their lives, in one way or another. Each person he passes is another she's saved, and they all know it.

It's Daniel's death all over again, except worse, because Janet has no hope of coming back.

She's been with the SGC since the beginning, and now it will have to limp forward without her.

.

(And it does, slowly, haltingly, but it does. Life drags them from their grief, and reminds them that time stops for no one.)

.

The rouge NID try manage to create a Goa'uld-human hybrid on Earth, and Kinsey tries to undermine the SGC on President Hayes' first day in office.

.

Politics. Jack could do without them.

.

Under attack from Anubis, Jack downloads the knowledge of the Ancients into his own mind. (Daniel's willing, but Jack pushes him back. It's him doing this, or no one at all.)

Back at the SGC, Hammond gets outed. After years of people trying to throw doubt onto the work he's done, someone finally succeeds.

Dr. Elizabeth Weir, a civilian, a Fire bender, a diplomat, gets command. Despite the Fire in her soul, Jack feels no kinship with her.

.

(He's dying anyway, what does it matter?)

.

(It matters because there's always a way out. It matters because even if he dies, his team will remain.)

.

The knowledge Jack gains leads SG-1 to an Ancient outpost, and an Ancient power source. It's not the lost city, its not Atlantis, but it saves Earth, and helps them discover an Ancient outpost on their own planet.

Barely aware of his surroundings, Jack steps into a stasis chamber, looks out at the team he loves with all his heart, and lets go.

.

Buried beneath the ice, he sleeps.

.

Jack wakes... No. Jack returns to awareness as part of an Asgard ship, his body still asleep, his mind separate. It's strange and unnatural, but not unpleasant. He can still feel his internal Fire, but he's not sure if that's his imagination or not.

The entirety of the _Daniel Jackson_ 's computer is available to him. He knows about the situation on Orilla and the threat of the Replicators. He knows how frail his body is right now. He also knows what he's willing to do to help a friend.

He builds the Replicator weapon first, and saves himself second, and when he wakes for real he has no memory of the last few days.

.

He adapts quickly enough.

.

Together SG-1 beats back the Replicators from Orilla, and reunite in a galaxy far from home. It is their last mission together as a team.

.

Jack has spent seven years side by side with his friends and allies, defending his planet. With their victory, and their discoveries, Weir gets command of the Ancient outpost in Antarctica. Jack gets a promotion, and command of the SGC.

.

He doesn't accept immediately (he talks with his team first), but he does say yes. Though he would never admit it, he's getting old.

.

As his first act of command, Jack promotes Sam to Lieutenant Colonel.

.

Life as commander of the SGC is far different than just life as the commander of SG-1. For one thing, Jack barely leaves the planet. For another, his responsibilities skyrocket - no longer can he pretend he doesn't have a desk, or miss memos. He doesn't get to use his Fire nearly as often either, though he amuses himself by making the torch in his office flare whenever a particularly nervous airman stands before him.

He doesn't get to see his team as much either.

But teams don't spend every day off-world, and Jack uses the little free time he has to sneak into Sam or Daniel's lab, or meet up with everyone in Teal'c's quarters.

.

The war with the Goa'uld is all but over now. Anubis is gone, and the remaining System Lords are too weak and too cowardly to attack Earth. Teams still run into skirmishes against loyal Jaffa, but for the most part the System Lords are all but defeated.

All but Ba'al - he twists and turns and wiggles his way through tight squeezes, staying out of trouble and gaining power all the while.

.

Jack deals with his people coming back injured and wayward science experiments, with Earthly politics and the struggles of the Free Jaffa.

Teal'c's son gets married, Sam breaks up with her boyfriend. Shau'ri and Shifu pay Daniel a visit.

The Stargate gets stolen, the Replicators return, and Jack gets to sit on Earth behind a desk as Hammond leads the _Prometheus_ to Atlantis.

(It gets hijacked and Daniel is captured, but everyone returns safely, in the end.)

.

Maybourne and the Russians, a barber in Indiana - Jack deals with politics and people now, far more than firefights and ambushes (but he still gets to go off-world, every now and again).

.

Almost a year into his command, with the System Lords mostly on the run, the Jaffa decided to take Dakara. Ba'al and the Replicators, the Ancients and the Jaffa. Through the battles and struggles Jack stays on Earth and listens and learns and directs, but does not see or fight or retaliate (at least, not until the Replicators make it to the SGC).

But Jack has had command of the SGC for a year now. He's grateful now, for the break. For the chance to take it easy on his knees, and sleep in a bed most nights. He's adjusted.

Anubis is gone. The Replicators are destroyed. The new Jaffa nation is established on Dakara. The SGC finds a ZPM to send to Atlantis, if anyone is still there.

(In another timeline, Jack rejoins SG-1 to travel back into history and dig it up. In another timeline, a reluctant Jack (still with Fire in his soul) gets roped into joining a crazy mission with two civilian scientists who've never been in a battle. This is not that Jack.)

When he gets the offer to join Homeworld command, Jack does so with the knowledge that he has helped to make the world a better place, and that his team is moving on as well. (But they will always be close.)

Sam makes her way to Area 51. Teal'c stays off-world these days, helping his people. Daniel readies for a trip to Atlantis.

Jack moves to DC, content.

Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. The four of them have done so much together, and there is more yet to come, but for now, all is well.


End file.
